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160805-N-AI605-099 PEARL HARBOR (Aug. 5, 2016) Chinese Navy guided-missile destroyer Xian (153) departs Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam following the conclusion of Rim of the Pacific 2016. Twenty-six nations, more than 40 ships and submarines, more than 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel participated in RIMPAC from June 30 to Aug. 4, in and around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California. The world's largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity that helps participants foster and sustain the cooperative relationships that are critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world's oceans. RIMPAC 2016 is the 25th exercise in the series that began in 1971. (U.S. Navy Photo By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Rebecca Wolfbrandt/Released)

Jim Fanell’s Note: I’m glad to see Lyle Goldstein continue to confirm my predictions about the PLA Navy operating in the Atlantic Ocean. It isn’t a matter of “if”, but “when”. My one note of disagreement with this piece is the notion that it is the current U.S. administration that is driving the PRC’s activity in the Atlantic. It mattered not who was President. Since the previous Obama Administration gave away Scarborough without a whimper, Xi and company have energized and accelerated the CCP’s master plan for the “great rejuvenation” of the PRC. We’ve got our work cut out for us, along with our NATO allies.

In yet another sign that a New Cold War is in the offing, more evidence is emerging that Beijing will indeed seek a global military footprint and will not be content to be a mere regional leader. With regular naval sorties going back more than a decade into the Indian Ocean, a new base in East Africa, and ever more common hints about possible future submarine deployments to the Arctic, this trend is not abrupt or unexpected.

But what of the Atlantic? Will the Chinese Navy dare to dip its toe into the very wellspring of American might? It’s not coincidental, after all, that the West’s premier military alliance is called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Back in 2017, I revealed a remarkable Chinese research article from an official source that stated candidly that China must pursue an “Atlantic Strategy,” asserting that Beijing should enter the Atlantic to “break the American maritime blockade and develop China’s maritime ‘exterior line’ [打破美国海洋封锁, 发展中国海洋‘外线战略’].” Two years later, a follow-up story appeared in the same official journal, Ocean Development and Management [海洋发展与管理] of the State Oceanic Administration. It is likely not coincidental that this article is once again the lead article in the journal, bespeaking its importance.